Remember that moment in July of 2016 when Donald Trump asked Russia to target Hillary Clinton during a news conference in Doral, Florida? John Podesta does. Not only that, but he asserted that Russia made good on Trump’s request, and then Trump turned around and blamed the former Clinton campaign chair. “Not bad enough that I was the victim of a massive cyber crime directed by the Russian President,” Podesta tweeted. “Now I’m the victim of a big lie campaign by the American President.”
Not bad enough that I was the victim of a massive cyber crime directed by the Russian President (1/3)
— John Podesta (@johnpodesta) October 31, 2017
Podesta is pushing back against the POTUS after Trump tried to claim that John’s brother Tony’s decision to step down from the helm of the Podesta Group is a bigger story than the FBI indictment of Trump associate Paul Manafort. Tony Podesta’s resignation came yesterday, no doubt because the Podesta Group is also in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s crosshairs for getting tangled up in shady Ukranian dealings like Manafort.
Now I’m the victim of a big lie campaign by the American President (2/3)
— John Podesta (@johnpodesta) October 31, 2017
Trump “seems a lot more worried now than July 2016 when he asked the Russians to hack our campaign,” Podesta tweeted this morning. He’s referring to Trump’s trademark tweet screeds as the POTUS spouted off on Tony Podesta and what his resignation suggests about the Democrats.
The biggest story yesterday, the one that has the Dems in a dither, is Podesta running from his firm. What he know about Crooked Dems is….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2017
“The biggest story yesterday, the one that has the Dems in a dither, is Podesta running from his firm,” the President tweeted. “What he know about Crooked Dems is earth shattering.” President Trump is seizing on Tony’s resignation to say this somehow proves the narrative about Hillary Clinton and uranium that he’s been pushing ever since Mueller went from quietly building a case from a distance to breathing down Trump’s neck. Trump is even using the same rhetoric, trying to redirect public interest away from stories he finds unfavorable toward what he thinks is real news.
Except that Trump seems to have completely forgotten his own role in this mess, over a year ago, when he invited the Russians to spill some tea based on 33,000 Clinton emails they supposedly had access to. Back then it was a bizarre moment. Now it seems like one worth returning to given everything we’ve learned since then about Russia’s long shadow over Capitol Hill.